The short version
A feasibility study is written for you, before you have decided. A business plan is written for someone else, after you have. That one distinction settles most of the questions I get asked about which document a client needs, so I will come back to it more than once.
Who each is written for
The reader of a feasibility study is the owner, or a board, or a family putting money in, and the question on their mind is "should I do this at all?" The document is allowed to be uncertain. It is supposed to show its doubts, because the doubts are the useful part.
The reader of a business plan is a bank manager, a Start Up Loans assessor, an investor or a landlord. They did not ask whether you should do it. You have told them you are doing it and asked for their money or their lease. Their question is "will this work well enough that I get paid?" The plan is a case, made honestly, for a decision you have already taken.
What a feasibility study contains
It starts with the question in one sentence: can a 40-cover restaurant work on this high street at this rent? Then it sets out what would have to be true for the answer to be yes, and goes looking for evidence. Demand: who is nearby, what they spend, who already serves them. The operating model: capacity, pricing, staffing, opening hours. The capital cost: fit-out, equipment, deposits, and working capital down to the low point. An operating forecast, usually three years with the first year monthly. Funding options and what each would cost. The risks that could sink it. And then a verdict.
The three verdicts
- Go. The numbers work on reasonable assumptions, with headroom, and the main risks have a mitigation. Rarer than you would think.
- Go with conditions. The most common verdict. It works if the rent comes in under a stated figure, or if you can pre-sell a stated number of memberships, or if you start with the smaller unit. The conditions become your negotiating list.
- Not yet. The idea may be sound but the site, the price, the timing or the funding does not stack up. A good "not yet" says what would have to change.
When I ran a fund, the analysts I trusted most were the ones who would come back from a piece of work and say "I looked, and it doesn't stack up." A clean "not yet" saved far more money over the years than any "go" ever made. A feasibility study that always says yes is not a study. It is a brochure with a spreadsheet attached.
If the study cannot come back with "not yet", you have paid for a business plan with a different cover.
What a business plan contains
The familiar shape: a summary, the business and its legal form, the product or service, the market and the competition, how you will sell, how the operation runs, who runs it, and the financials. The financials are where most plans fall down. A lender wants an integrated forecast, meaning a profit and loss, a cash flow and a balance sheet that move together, with the first year monthly, plus the assumptions behind them and a downside case. Then the funding request itself: how much, for what, repaid how and from which line of the forecast. Then the risks, written as a grown-up would write them, and the appendices.
Side by side
| Feasibility study | Business plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Written for | You, before deciding | A lender, investor or landlord, after deciding |
| The question | Should this happen? | Will this pay you back? |
| Tone | Sceptical, shows its doubts | Confident, honest about risk |
| Forecast | Scenarios around a base case | One base case plus a downside |
| Ends with | A verdict and conditions | A funding request |
When you need both, and in what order
Feasibility first, always, if you need it at all. The study's base case becomes the plan's forecast, so the work carries forward rather than being done twice. If the verdict was "go with conditions", the plan shows the lender that the conditions were met: the rent agreed below the threshold, the pre-sales achieved. Two mistakes to avoid. Do not commission a business plan to find out whether the idea works; the document is not built to tell you no. And do not send a lender your feasibility study. It is full of doubts on purpose, and a credit analyst will read every one of them as a reason to decline.
You do not always need both. An established business taking on a second van does not need a feasibility study. Someone about to sign a fifteen-year lease on a padel centre probably does, before anyone drafts a plan.
What each costs with me
Under my Christmas offer, until 31 January 2027, a feasibility study starts at £1,050 and a business plan at £650 (from February, £1,500 and £950). I am not VAT-registered, so those are the prices you pay. Each comes with a first draft in five working days, two rounds of changes and the Excel workbook. If you commission both, the plan reuses the study's model, so it tends to sit at the lower end of its range. One thing to be clear about: if the study comes back "not yet", you still pay for the study. That is rather the point of it.
Common questions
Can I send my feasibility study to the bank instead of a business plan?
I would not. A study is built to show its doubts, and a credit analyst reads doubts as reasons to decline. Turn its base case into a plan, which is a shorter job once the study exists.
Can I skip the feasibility study and go straight to a plan?
Often, yes. An existing business expanding something it already does rarely needs one. A new venture with a long lease, a big fit-out or an unproven market usually does, because the plan is not built to tell you no.
How long does each take?
With me, a first draft of either in five working days from the brief, then two rounds of changes. Commissioning both in sequence usually takes three to four weeks end to end, depending on how quickly you turn comments round.
Need the document itself?
Fixed fees, no VAT, first draft in five working days, the Excel workbook included. Free 10-minute call, or send the basics by email.
Feasibility studies from £1,050Business plans from £650Get a fixed quote